PETRONAS Carigali, the exploration and production arm of Petronas, recently made two significant gas discoveries in the shallow water areas offshore the west coast of Sabah, Malaysia.

The first discovery was made via the Zuhal East-1 well, located in the Samarang Asam Paya Block about 130 km southwest of Kota Kinabalu. The well was spudded in approximately 38 meters of water and reached a total depth of 2,336 meters to confirm the presence of significant gas-bearing reservoirs. The current estimate of gas-initially-in-place is about 550 billion standard cu ft.

Similar reservoirs in a nearby well about 5 km to the east of the Zuhal East discovery were tested to flow gas at a maximum rate of 21 million standard cu ft/day. Petronas Carigali is the sole equity holder of the production sharing contract (PSC) of the Samarang Asam Paya Block.

The second discovery, at the Menggatal-1 well, is located in Block SB312, about 110 km northeast of Kota Kinabalu. The well was spudded in 204 meters of water and reached a total depth of 2,100 meters. It was production-tested and flowed gas at a rate of 19 million standard cu ft/day through a 36/64-in. choke size with no recorded CO2 and H2S content. Gas-initially-in-place is currently estimated to be about 650 billion standard cu ft.

The Block SB312 PSC is a joint venture between Petronas Carigali with 60% equity and KUFPEC Malaysia, a subsidiary of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co (KUFPEC), which holds the remaining interest.

PETRONAS Carigali is the operator for both PSCs. Further appraisals are being planned in the near future to delineate the extent of these discoveries.